Fathers and Daughters, Mothers and Sons

Brief Thoughts on a Couple of Independent Films I saw this weekend:

The first was The Ballad of Jack and Rose, from director Rebecca Miller. It tells the story of the intense relationship between a dying father and his daughter, and how the father's new girlfriend upsets the balance of that relationship. This is an extremely well acted and beautifully shot film. Unfortunately, the film never completely comes together. Uneven pacing hurts the film's attempts to build emotional momentum and a tacked on epilogue ending does not end this film on the right note. I would still recommend this film. The interesting exploration of some difficult themes and the performances of Daniel Day-Lewis, Camilla Belle, and especially Catherine Keener make it a worthwhile experience.

The next film was Dear Frankie, from director Shona Auerbach (That's two films from female directors this weekend. Can we get more of these please?) It tells the story of a mother and her deaf son, who have been on the run from her husband for several years. The mother has been writing fake letters from the boy's father, telling stories of his adventures at sea. However, she is faced with a difficult choice when the boy wants to meet his father. Dear Frankie is a fairly simple story, but it gets everything right. There are so many moments where this film could have gone wrong, but it avoids them every single time. I'm particularly fond of the lovely ending that avoids extending itself too far. There are strong performances from the entire cast, but Emily Mortimer shines in the central role. Her beautifully expressive performance carries the movie.

A Minor Miracle?

Well, it's official. Veronica Mars has been renewed for a 2nd season! This was really surprising to me, although others had speculated this would happen. The ratings are extremely low, and I don't know how they can justify this from a purely fiscal standpoint. In the announcement, UPN president Dawn Ostroff said, "This is the type of smart, compelling show we want viewers to expect from UPN." It appears that UPN is serious in reworking it's image, even if that requires renewing such a low rated show. This is probably a bad sign for Kevin Hill, but it hasn't been written off yet. If UPN somehow manages to renew that one as well, they will have my eternal respect for their decision to promote quality television even in the face of ratings disaster.

UPN's Dilemma

This has been one of the best TV seasons in recent memory, thanks to the emergence of creative shows such as Lost and Desperate Housewives. One of the most interesting aspects of this season has been the plight of two shows on fledgling network UPN. UPN is a network that has had a very poor track record with original fictional programming. In the early days, they had a decent sitcom in Moesha, but other than that there was Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: Enterprise which came with established fan bases. Buffy the Vampire Slayer is the best show they've ever had, but that was bought from the WB and began a downward slide in ratings and quality under UPN's watch. The network is known more for it's disasters (a prime example being the horribly ill-conceived slavery sitcom The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer) than it's successes. Finally, UPN found two quality shows and added them to it's fall lineup. Unfortunately, no one is watching them.



Veronica Mars is a stylish show about the teenage daughter of a detective who starts helping her father out with cases. The main case Veronica is interested in is the death of her best friend Lilly Kane. This completely changed her life, as her father (who used to be the sheriff) was ostracized in the community for investigating Lilly's father. This also led to Veronica's life being turned upside down at school. The once popular Veronica was raped at a school party and is now treated as an outcast. Also, her mother left town without notice, adding to the mystery of Lilly's death. The show is very dark and creative, but adds plenty of humor and moves at a frenetic pace. It's chief asset is the amazing Kristen Bell (pictured above) in the lead role. She plays Veronica with the right amount of extreme confidence with enough vulnerability thrown in so she doesn't come off as conceited. The supporting cast is a mixed bag as far as talent goes (Enrico Colantoni is the best, Percy Daggs is the worst), but they are all entertaining in their own way. Veronica Mars airs Tuesdays at 9pm and has 5 episodes left in this season. It will be very interesting to see how the mystery is wrapped up.



Kevin Hill is a show that could sound very bad on paper. It stars Taye Diggs (pictured above) as a bachelor lawyer whose cousin passes away and leaves him custody of a newborn baby. When I heard this, I was dreading a bunch of Three Men and a Baby style jokes and an overall juvenile attitude. I was surprised to find this to be one of the most mature shows I've ever seen dealing with a young baby. The show focuses on Kevin's attempts to balance his bachlor lifestyle with his new responsibility. It's a charming show that focuses on light humor and subtle dramatic moments. Nothing on this show is overwrought. The supporting cast is very strong, particularly christina Hendricks as a fellow lawyer at Kevin's new law firm. In an age where most shows targetted at African-Americans focus on low brow humor, it's refreshing to see such a quietly charming show on the air. Kevin Hill airs on Wednesdays at 9pm.

Apparently, UPN can't win, though. Both shows are doing very poorly in the ratings, and it's not for a lack of trying. UPN has admirably advertised the heck out of these shows but people still haven't been watching. Conventional wisdom is that UPN will probably keep one of these shows and cancel the other, but the recent ratings I've seen makes it look like both will be cancelled. It's a shame that quality shows like Veronica Mars and Kevin Hill can't find an audience, but I have to give UPN credit for giving these shows a home and trying their best to get people to watch them. I'll be crossing my fingers in hopes that one or both of these fine shows will be renewed in May.

Sin City

I have a great deal of admiration for any movie that can make me like Mickey Rourke. That is quite an accomplishment. Sin City is an imaginative movie that that has some of the most stunning cinematography I've seen in a long time. It tells three separate stories based on graphic novels by Frank Miller, and the cinematography perfectly captures the atomsphere of the source material. The movie is filled with exciting action set pieces, wicked humor, and a strong ensemble cast (Rosario Dawson, Carla Gugino, Bruce Willis, and the aforementioned Rourke being my favorites). So why didn't I love this movie more?

The main problem with Sin City is the filmmakers have spent so much time capturing the look and excitement of the graphic novels, they failed to make the individual stories compelling enough for us to care about. I would have actually preferred if they had picked an individual story to flesh out instead of telling us three separate stories that really don't come together except for brief moments. As it is, the stories are too short for us to really care about what's going on and we're left with repetitive scenes of destruction. There's nothing necessarily wrong with that, but it doesn't make it a great movie.